Some thoughts to ponder on everyday life.

Menu

Procrastination

At one point I made a list of possible topics to write about for this blog, and procrastination was one of them. Ironically, it’s one topic that I keep pushing down the list, so apparently I can be very good at procrastinating! I know plenty of other people who are good at it as well. I think it’s one of those things I tend to harp on my kids about because I wish I wasn’t good at it myself. Conversely, I get great satisfaction out of completing a task and crossing it off my “to do” list and often do get things done in a timely fashion, so it’s not that I am not ambitious or lack self-initiative. It’s just that some tasks are just not as interesting or fulfilling or can be daunting or overwhelming. Or I just need to be in the right mood or have a larger block of uninterrupted time. It’s getting started that is the challenge. Once I have gotten over that hump, then things are a different story.

I find that feeling like I am organized and on top of things makes a huge difference. If either my work space or my brain is too cluttered, then I can’t focus as well and don’t have as much drive. So that is sometimes the first thing I need to do. Sometimes getting rid of things that either the kids or I don’t need anymore gives me a lot of energy to get other things done. I also tend to want to get a lot of smaller tasks done first before I start a larger task not only to declutter my brain but to feel like I accomplished something because success breeds more success. I often feel like I got more done in a day if I can say I got lots of little things done vs. a larger project. The problem with that is that sometimes the smaller tasks just keep piling up and I never get to the bigger tasks. I do sometimes have to remind myself how good it will feel when I have that larger project done and just dive in.

I do get distracted by things like Facebook and reading online articles, but I also will all of a sudden feel like doing something like clean out a kitchen drawer or a closet on a whim and will be getting something done. It just wasn’t what I had on my “to do” list for the day or at all. Then there are the times I will feel inspired to be creative and will go with that when the mood strikes me. Doing things that put me in a good mood or make me feel like I am making a difference, even though they distract me temporarily, help keep me going as well. So I need to find a balance between getting things done and doing things that make me feel emotionally full. What I need to be better at is sometimes setting a time limit for doing the more fun and fulfilling things when I know I have other things that need to get done. Even though I suggest this to my kids frequently, I can’t always do it myself.

Life is obviously about much more than just getting things done, so it’s important to keep that perspective and not get too down on myself if I didn’t get too much done in any given day. It’s when I have several days in a row of not accomplishing much that can make me feel like I really need to work on time management.

I have actually been procrastinating doing other things that I should be doing in order to write this because it is more fulfilling than the other things, although in a way it IS helping me declutter my brain of my thoughts on procrastinating. So it’s time to follow my own advice and get started on something else! If reading this has been a distraction for you, my apologies, but hopefully it was the mental break that you needed, and thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts! Now get to work!

If you have any thoughts to share on this topic, please feel free to click on “Leave a Comment” below the title to this post. You can easily read any or all previous posts by clicking on the “Home” page tab and scrolling through the topics, or you can search by clicking on a category or tag word or by using the search box to the left.

Like this:

Post navigation

2 thoughts on “Procrastination”

Oraganization is definitely a key to avoiding procrastination. I keep all of my tasks, every single little thought, in Todoist. I recommend it for use, it’s free. I find that the opposite of procrastination is proactivity. I do my best not to avoid tasks, but to be on top of them. One more thing I do is take proactive breaks. We all need breaks, and we shouldn’t feel guilty about them. So I browse Facebook consciously. Great article by the way, enjoyed reading it!

Yes, those breaks are important as long as they don’t get to be too long and we can get back to the task at hand. That’s where I run into trouble sometimes. Thanks for the suggestion. Glad you liked the post.